Governor takes aim at Trump

San Francisco Chronicle

January 24, 2017Updated: January 24, 2017 8:22pm

Photo: Rich Pedroncelli, Associated Press

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FILE - In this Jan. 10, 2017, file photo, California Gov. Jerry Brown discusses his 2017-2018 state budget plan he released at a news conference in Sacramento, Calif. Brown is coming off a blockbuster year of liberal wins on climate change, minimum wage, gun control and two of his pet projects, sentencing reform and high-speed rail. But he delivers his State of the State address Tuesday, Jan. 24 in a time of uncertainty for California and to a Legislature that's in a defensive posture after the election of President Donald Trump. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File) less

FILE - In this Jan. 10, 2017, file photo, California Gov. Jerry Brown discusses his 2017-2018 state budget plan he released at a news conference in Sacramento, Calif. Brown is coming off a blockbuster year of ... more

Photo: Rich Pedroncelli, Associated Press

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Gov. Jerry Brown struck a defiant tone on Tuesday. delivers the State of the State address at the Capitol in Sacramento, Calif. on Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2017.

Gov. Jerry Brown struck a defiant tone on Tuesday. delivers the State of the State address at the Capitol in Sacramento, Calif. on Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2017.

Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle

Governor takes aim at Trump

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If it’s not war, it sure sounds like it. Gov. Jerry Brown unleashed a full-scale attack on President Trump, declaring California won’t give up a string of policies ranging from climate change curbs to immigrant-friendly laws.

Brown used his annual State of the State address to tick off his selected accomplishments and quickly moved to his real target: the broad-brush initiatives taking shape in the White House that could undercut the state budget and California’s custom-made programs.

“The future is uncertain, and dangers abound,’’ Brown said in his address to the Legislature, where majority Democrats cheered him on frequently.

Brown’s dukes-up posture is more than rhetoric. If Trump and Republicans in Congress repeal the Affordable Care Act, which covers some 5 million California residents, the state budget will “possibly be devastated” by the loss of billions in federal revenue. Brown’s signature feat of reviving state finances would be in ruins if Republicans cut off health care funds.

On climate change, California may be able to fashion its own future, Brown suggested. That means sticking with energy use policies that trim fossil fuels by limiting tailpipe emissions and push utilities to use more renewables. Trump has already begun revoking clean-air orders limiting power plant pollution.

With immigration, Brown promised legal challenges if the Trump team goes after state laws that limit police cooperation with federal authorities and assure access to education, driver’s licenses and job rights for undocumented residents. “We may be called on to defend those laws, and defend them we will,” he said. Moments before his speech, Brown swore in Attorney General Xavier Becerra, a former chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

A few grains of common ground may exist. As with Trump, Brown wants to spend big on public projects, which for the governor is his controversial twin tunnels plan to divert water around the Sacramento and San Joaquin delta. “Amen to that, brother,” Brown ad-libbed when he noted Trump’s $1 trillion plan for roads, bridges and airports.

But the overwhelming tone was ridicule and resistance. Like other state Democratic leaders, Brown has stewed angrily over the Trump ascension to the White House. He ended his speech by citing folksinger Woody Guthrie, who strummed that “Nobody living can ever make me turn back.’’ Brown struck the right note of defiance for a state of uncertainty with the election of a president so openly hostile to values this state holds dear.